Behind the Mask
by HideSeekKeep
Summary: After a four-year absence, Noodle has finally returned but what is she hiding behind the mask she wears? 2DxNoodle


**Disclaimer: I don't own Gorillaz.**

She was back.

After four long years, Noodle had found her way back to them.

Noodle's reunion with the rest of the band, however, was not the joyous event they had often dreamt about during her absence. Upon arriving at Point Nemo, she was met with a barrage of machine gun fire, courtesy of Android Noodle.

2D had been dazedly staring at the fish tank in the study when he heard the gunshots and had rushed to the window to see what the commotion was about. To his surprise, he was met with the image of two Noodles—one bedecked in army gear and weaponry, the other in a dress with a cat mask on her face—battling each other to the death on the beach below him. It took a few moments for 2D to register that this was not some elaborate hallucination induced by the drugs Murdoc had been feeding him.

A long battle between the Asian Axe Princess and android had ensued, but the real Noodle was able to dispatch the cyborg in the end, much to the relief of those on the island, except for Murdoc. Upon seeing his creation destroyed, he bitterly cursed the girl and ran toward the remnants of the machine, hopelessly trying to salvage what pieces of it he could.

Why the hell Murdoc had programmed the thing to attack the original Noodle was beyond him, but that was a question for a later time. Noodle was back.

Rushing to the lift, 2D took it down to the Plastic Beach entrance. In his haste, he ran straight into the back of Russel, who had arrived on the ground floor before him. The drummer, however, took no heed, as he stared at the masked figure that stood before them.

"Is it really you, baby girl?" Russel asked, disbelief and hope mingled in his voice.

"Yes, I have returned, Russel-sama." She sounded tired and defeated, even though she had been the victor in the battle against the murderous machine.

Russel opened his arms to her, and she entered them willingly.

Watching the drummer and guitarist embrace, 2D's head was in a haze. He still wasn't completely confident if the girl in front of him was actually the real Noodle, especially with the mask covering her face, but when she stood in front of him and brought a gloved hand to his cheek, he knew it was her.

He had so many things he wanted to say to her, to ask her. _Are you alright? Where have you been? I never thought I'd see you again. How did you get here?_ But the thoughts got muddled in his head and no words came out; he was left staring at her, his mouth agape.

"It has been a very trying day. I need some time for myself. Please, forgive me," Noodle said, excusing herself and cutting their reunion short, still not having given 2D the chance to say a word. She then stepped into the lift and disappeared into the recesses of Plastic Beach.

* * *

After his all too brief encounter with Noodle, 2D found solace in the recording studio. For the first time in a long while, his mind was too full, and his only release was to let it out in a barrage of lyrics and music. When he was finally spent—nearly three hours later—he returned to his room.

He wasn't completely surprised to find Noodle there. Like many times in the past, she had often sought refuge in his room after a stressful event. The sight of her in the flesh after all these years, however, still left him reeling.

She stood in front of the room's solitary porthole with her arms around herself, staring out at the sea, the cat mask still on her face.

She recognized his presence with a small nod of her head but continued to gaze out at the water. He made his way next to her and followed her eye line. They stood together in quiet meditation for a long while, watching fish swim by the window. The sea was almost beautiful, calming even, when he stood here with her. He could almost forget that there were such terrible creatures as whales lurking in the water.

"I missed you, Noodle."

"I missed you too, 2D-kun." There were more words that seemed to be on the tip of her tongue, but she stopped herself before saying anything further.

He wanted so badly to know what had happened to her, to find out every detail that she had been up to since she had been gone, but he knew she would reveal everything to him in her own time, as was her way. Most of all, however, he wanted to know why she was so sad. The melancholy surrounding her was almost palpable, a sharp contrast to the lively energy she used to exude in years past, and he desperately wanted to take her sorrow away.

"I thought about you every day you were gone," he said, breaking the silence that had once again fallen between them.

"And I you. More than you will ever know."

Turning to her, he was surprised to be met with the cat mask facing him. He had forgotten she was still wearing it and realized he had yet to see her actual face. When she was younger, Noodle had found pleasure in putting on masks for fun, but 2D sensed that wearing this mask was no childish whim. She was using it to hide and he had no clue as to why she would feel the need to do so, especially from him. Granted, it was a pretty mask and he had always been rather fond of cats but at this moment all he wanted was to look into his friend's familiar face.

"Please take the mask off, Noodle."

She didn't move. He almost thought that she hadn't heard him.

"You do not want that, 2D-kun," she finally responded, her voice pained.

"Yes, I do. I want to see my little love's face."

He reached his hands out to her, in an effort to remove the mask.

"Please. Don't," she said weakly, taking a step away from him.

"It's okay, darling. You don't have to hide from me."

When she didn't pull away, he undid the elastic band of the mask and slipped it off her face, tossing it to the ground. Before he could properly look at her, however, she quickly bowed her head and let her bangs fall in front of her eyes. As a teenager growing up, Noodle had often used her hair as a shield, especially against the press and public. 2D had previously been one of the special people who had been granted access to her emerald orbs, but now all he felt was pain when she used the defensive motion against him.

Seeming to sense that she had inadvertently hurt him, Noodle tried to offer an explanation, "I have been through too much, 2D-kun. I am not the same Noodle you once knew..."

The next words seemed to take a great effort for her to say. "I am ugly."

"Impossible," he responded immediately.

Putting his fingers under her chin, he lifted her head up to face him.

He gingerly parted her hair from her face and, for the first time, saw the damage that had been done to his dear friend, damage that had been there long before she had battled with her android counterpart. Some blood vessels had burst in her right eye and there was bruising all around the area, with possible scarring, from God-knows-what Noodle had been through. But that was not the change he noticed when he looked into her face. She had transformed into a stunning young woman over the years and his heart ached to realize that he had not been there to witness it.

"You are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"That is not true, 2D-kun. Please do not say that," she said, quickly turning away from him and returning her gaze to the sea.

Silence once again threatened to envelop the room, but he didn't know what else to say to convince her. 2D knew he had never been the most eloquent of speakers, a fact he cursed at this very moment, since he so desperately wanted to prove to Noodle how much he meant what he had said. So instead he did the only thing he could think of to show her.

He stepped in front of her, blocking her view of the water. Her brow furrowed and she looked questioningly up at him, confusion and sadness etched on her face.

Reaching out to her, he tenderly cupped her face in his hands and bent down and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead.

He then moved down her face and kissed her left cheek, softly, slowly.

When it became clear that he was going to proceed to the other side of her face—the damaged side—she tried to flinch out of his grasp. His grip on her was strong though and he refused to let her go.

"No, Noodle. You are beautiful."

Tears sprung into her eyes at his words and she was looking everywhere but at him. It broke his heart.

He gently stroked the right side of her face and then planted a feather-soft kiss on her right cheek, being careful not to hurt her.

"Beautiful," he whispered to her reverently.

When he pulled away, he saw that she was looking at him—green eyes wide, piercing into his own. The tears still threatened to fall but, ever so slowly, a ghost of a smile started to spread on her lips. He had gotten his message across.

"You were my main reason for coming back, 2D-kun. Please do not let me go again."

"Never."

With that, the tears fell from her eyes, but he now felt that they were no longer entirely tears of sorrow.

"I love you," she said as she fell into his arms and clutched him tightly, breathing him in and weeping into his shirt.

He rested his head on hers, stroking her hair and letting her cry.

"I love you too."

Finally, she was home.

**Author's Note: _I hope you all liked my first Gorillaz fic! I spent my time working on this instead of studying for midterms like I should have been doing, but this story was just begging to be written. I've missed Noodle so much and the latest photos of her from Phase Three proved to be fantastic inspiration for a story. Forgive me if I might have gotten any facts wrong along the way; I tried my best to make things as accurate as possible, while obviously taking some liberties with what might happen in the Gorillaz universe in the future. If you liked it, please take the time to review; you'll make my day so much brighter. Thanks for reading!_**


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